


Tale of a Peridot (Things Worth Protecting)

by hubbletuff



Series: The Tales of the Paladin Gems (that Steven Universe au no one asked for) [2]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: F/M, M/M, Steven Universe au!
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-24
Updated: 2017-06-24
Packaged: 2018-11-18 12:40:01
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,529
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11290926
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hubbletuff/pseuds/hubbletuff
Summary: It continued like this, H-O-L-T-3 sitting with Keith whenever the Paladins left the temple. Then, one day, it began to rain. “Water is falling from the atmosphere.”Keith looked up from his book. “Hm? Oh, yeah, it does that sometimes.”“I like it.”





	Tale of a Peridot (Things Worth Protecting)

**Author's Note:**

> So here is the second installment in the series. Pidge, getting some attention over here.

As soon as she emerged into the musty air, Peridot #31511115514 Cut H-O-L-T-3 was told that she was wrong. Her vision was impaired, but they could fix that! They gave her a visor that blocked her gem. It was constricting, almost suffocating (though she did not need to breathe and therefore could not experience suffocation), even though it would do nothing. As an Era 2 Peridot, her gem was useless. She was told that she had no weapon, no powers, no abilities. She was tiny, unlike other Peridots, and had long hair, with no shapeshifting to be able to change that. She was looked down on. But they kept her. They were desperate. No one else in her batch of gems had come out as good as she had. They gave H-O-L-T-3 limb enhancers that made her taller and more capable.

She continued to suffocate. She was trapped, her body, her mind, her gem, all trapped. But she was loyal to her Diamond. H-O-L-T-3 needed to be. She had nothing else to be loyal to. She was put in a group of other Peridots who had no need for limb enhancers, and unlike others, they did not look down at her. They taught her well, but when the time came that the other Peridots made mistakes, they were harvested for jeopardizing an elite Rose Quartz’s mission.

So as everyone expected her to be better, as she was warned that if any mistakes were to occur she would be harvested, as her limb enhancers were approved, that suffocating feeling increased. She spent every day of her technology-driven life in that feeling’s grasp.

…

H-O-L-T-5 was assigned a mission to Earth to check if there were any Paladins left to stop Homeworld from proceeding and colonizing the planet. What she had not accounted for was that fact that Paladins _were_ , in fact, still on Earth. They were alive and well, or at least four of them were… and a small human male. A male that H-O-L-T-3 learned was a ‘Keith’. He tried to thwart her plans, he tried to stop her from completing her mission. To her, it was almost as if he was trying to cause her to mess up and be disposed of.

The gems fought her and almost tore her apart. They were still there, and they were powerful. She had not yet gotten sight of Obsidian, but he had to be there somewhere.

She traveled back to Homeworld and just barely got the Diamonds to understand the reasons she had returned, and why she needed help. They sent her back with her own ship, a Jasper, and an Amethyst. The ship was much bigger than was necessary, but H-O-L-T-3 wasn’t complaining.

…

They had landed. The Jasper hadn’t believed they were a real threat until the Keith summoned his weapon, a dagger, that had on it the symbol of Obsidian and the Paladin Rebellion, a black sun. _This_ was Obsidian. This Keith shattered Pink Diamond.

She knew she should have been happy about this, but that suffocating feeling only closed in on her as Jasper took out the largest and strongest Paladin. The Keith and his human friend were knocked unconscious, the other Paladins poofed, all of them dragged on board the ship. H-O-L-T-3 piloted the ship away from Earth, her cockpit void of distractions until the Keith and the human, who she heard the Keith call “Lance”, escaped. She watched them run into N-Y-M-A-5, and then saw them… fuse.

It was impossible humans to fuse. It was unheard of, at the least. And the Keith was Obsidian, so what did this mean? It called itself Klance.

H-O-L-T-3 was enraptured. She had never seen anything like this before, how could N-Y-M-A-5 hate it so much? To her, fusion was beautiful. But Klance was beating N-Y-M-A-5, _badly_. This couldn’t be happening. The door to the cockpit whirred open, allowing the Paladin Leopard Jasper, the Paladin Pearl, and the Paladin Moonstone to enter.

 _This couldn’t be happening_.

She would surely be shattered for this! Nothing was going to go right, nothing ever did. The Paladins took control of the ship, and crashed into the Earth beach. Pieces of debris were scattered everywhere, one in particular was laying on top of her. She was being crushed. She still felt suffocated. She pushed the heavy rock off of herself, and came face to face with the shattered remains of the Amethyst. She scooped up his pieces and stored them in her limb enhancers to keep what was left of him safe. It was the least she could do, causing all this. She hadn’t been strong enough to fight the Paladins on her own, and it had come at the cost of an innocent Amethyst guard.

N-Y-M-A-5 emerged from the wreckage seconds later, staggering around in rage. She went on a tirade about how if she were a fusion, she could have won, repeating it over and over. She stumbled over and begged the Moonstone Paladin to fuse with her, to help her. H-O-L-T-3 didn’t know why the Moonstone said yes, but he did. The two danced elegantly, and came together into a large green monster of a fusion.

A Jasper and a Moonstone became a Chrysoprase, it seemed. An incredibly unstable and insane Chrysoprase. The fusion seemed to be fine for just a moment before they freaked out, the first one to panic seemingly being the Moonstone.

He flailed the fusion around, angry, but his resistance was futile. N-Y-M-A-5 was controlling Chrysoprase, and she was determined to win against the Paladins. Though that wrath did seem to be directed at H-O-L-T-3 as well. But before Chrysoprase could bring their fist down and crush her, the tides rose out of the ocean and grabbed the fusion’s hands and feet. They were viciously pulled under the waves. The moon seemed to glow even brighter as Chrysoprase disappeared.

Everything was silent. The waves yet again crashed into the shore as they all watched in shock. But H-O-L-T-3 came to her senses just as the Paladin Pearl did. He shot forward, sword in hand, and lunged for her. She quickly moved out of the way, but not fast enough. Her hair got cut off.

The shock of the night air on her back caused her to temporarily pause, and it gave the Pearl an opportunity to poof her. Even though she was in her gem, she could swear she heard the gasps in response to her limb enhancers and visor falling to the ground.

…

She woke up in the Paladins’ temple a few days later. There, sitting in front of her, was a blurry figure that seemed to be the Keith. The Obsidian. She stumbled back, but fell over. She wasn't used to walking without limb enhancers, she hadn't in a century. The Keith clamped his hand over his mouth at the sight of her.

A quick grasp at her hair showed her one of the things he was surprised at: her hair was wild and short, a stark contrast to how she used to look. It was unnatural to her. Sure, she was made unequal because of her longer hair, but this still was worse.

The other thing that the Keith was not expecting was obvious. It had now been revealed how short and defective and weak she was. He would now no doubt look down on her, though they were the same height. But he only said she was “smol and cute”.

What did that even mean?

…

H-O-L-T-3 trusted the Keith. She let him use the bathroom while she hid in the bathtub. Maybe she would come out, maybe she would leave the bathroom. So one day, when the other Paladins had gone away on an important mission, she slowly crept out and watched him eat microwave popcorn and watch a movie for a solid minute before sitting beside him on the couch. He jumped, startled by her sudden arrival. “Peridot! You left the bathroom!”

“Yes, um, I am Peridot #31511115514 Cut H-O-L-T-3. You can call me H-O-L-T-3, if you wish.”

Keith shifted. “Sam once told me that once you're liberated on Earth, you get to choose your own individual name to represent your new life.”

“I'm not starting a new life. I'm stuck here. I want to go home.”

“...Oh.”

…

It continued like this, H-O-L-T-3 sitting with Keith whenever the Paladins left the temple. Then, one day, it began to rain. “Water is falling from the atmosphere.”

Keith looked up from his book. “Hm? Oh, yeah, it does that sometimes.”

“I like it.”

…

“Keith?”

“Yes?”

“Did you, perchance, keep my visor?”

“Uh, no, why?”

“I can't see without it. Everything is blurry. It's one of my… defects.” Keith’s eyes widened, and he ran off without any warning, up to his bed. He sprinted back down the stairs and sat back down next to H-O-L-T-3, holding out two circular pieces of glass in thin, wiry frames.

“These are called glasses. They belong to my grandfather, Coran, but he never uses them. Besides, he's out traveling the world somewhere. But they're supposed to help with impaired eyesight!” He put the glasses over her eyes, and everything suddenly became clear. She could finally see this new Earth.  
...

H-O-L-T-3 looked out the window at a gray bird sitting on the front porch, just perching there, staring at everything with a curious eye.

“Keith, what is that… _thing_ called?”

“That's, um, that's a pigeon.”

“... I know what I want my name to be.”

Keith was stunned. This… this meant….

( _“Sam once told me that once you're liberated on Earth, you get to choose your own individual name to represent your new life.”_ )

“You want to…”

“I want to choose my life. I want to be on Earth. I want to be in the rain, around the pigeons.

“I want to be Pidge.”

…

Pidge could tell that Sam was snapping. She was just talking to Keith about how she didn't quite understand “the bits”.

“Stop pretending to be Matt! You can't replace him! So just… STOP!”

Pidge was taken aback. She was just being her. Is this what she got? As she ran out of the boardwalk, through the beach, into the temple, and, finally, into the bathroom where she hid, a familiar feeling returned.

She was being constricted, strangled, _suffocated_. She didn't understand, she didn't have her visor on anymore, or her limb enhancers, was something wrong with her?

She should know the answer. Something is always wrong.

…

“Pidge! You called Lotor a clod! Do you know what this means?”

“I'm a disgrace to Peridots everywhere and they're all going to get shattered because of me?”

“You're a real Paladin now.” Pidge looked up to Sam smiling warmly down at her.

Without breaking eye contact, she smiled right back.

…

Matt was wrapped in a blanket when he entered the temple. Pidge had not seen him since he fused with N-Y-M-A-5, since she was still _bad_.

He took one look at her and turned to the others in confusion. “Who is this?”

“Don't you recognize her?” At his blank stare, Hunk continued, “It's her. The Peridot.” Matt’s eyes widened comically. He whipped around to see her, his eyes spilling over with horror. He only calmed down slightly when Pidge stepped up and stuck out her hand.

“Peridot #31511115514 Cut H-O-L-T-3, to be specific. My name is Pidge, though. I'm the newest Paladin.” He stared at the hand held out in front of him. Pidge frowned. “I'm sorry, Keith told me that this was a human greeting. Is it not?”

“No, no, it's good. That's right.”

“Oh, good. I was scared for a second there.”

“Hey, your Cut is a coincidence! Mine is H-O-L-T-8, and I believe Sam’s is H-O-L-T-0.”

“Wow, that's crazy!”

…

Pidge, Matt, and Sam fought together in the final battle against Haggar. Zarkon and Lotor had already been defeated, it was only her left now. It was the Holts against the Diamond.

Hunk and Klance were there as well, valiantly fighting for their lives.

They were winning, taking out druids one by one until they made their way to Haggar herself. They were about to face the worst threat they'd ever fight. But they were family, they had a strong bond, all of the Paladins, they could do this. Together. They were confident in each other.

That feeling lasted a few seconds before the last Druid attacked Sam from behind. It tackled him, drew a blade that crackled with electricity, and stabbed him right in the gem.

His screams haunted Pidge’s dreams for centuries.

Matt, Hunk, and Klance ran forward and attacked Haggar where she sat, but while they were heroes, Pidge practically destroyed the Druid and kneeled at Sam’s side. He looked her in the eyes. Even with the glasses things were getting blurry, though it was cause by her tears. She wiped her face. She wanted to be able to see Sam perfectly right now, she wanted to memorize what he looked like. She knew he would be gone soon, and she didn't want to forget him.

“Pidge,” He said with his dying breath, “You're like my daughter. You and Matt are my family, Colleen, too. Tell Colleen I love her.”

“I will, I will.”

“Don't let Hunk beat himself up. Comfort Keith. Console Lance. And you and Matt need to be together after I'm gone, you need to be a family still. Don't lock yourselves away.

“I'm sorry, Pidge. Say goodbye for me.”

…

The aftermath was difficult. The defeat of the Diamonds, the liberation of helpless homeworld gems, all the good news was overshadowed by loss and grief. Colleen was heartbroken, so was everyone else. Pidge helped them all, even when they snapped at her for it.

Hunk met Shay, married her, had a son. He was gone. Keith and Lance got married, adopted a little girl. Matt and Pidge placed a bouquet of lilies on Allura’s grave, and a rose gold and obsidian pendant to symbolize her and Shiro’s love.

Death ended up being a pretty big part of Pidge’s experience on Earth. Coran died a little before Allura, too, and so did Colleen.

This may have been, in part, why she was here, crying, hugging Matt, while Keith and Lance’s coffins were lowered into their twin graves. She had turned her normally white and green attire black and silver for the occasion, and Matt had made himself a suit. Pidge’s green hair and Matt’s blue hair certainly stood out to the other attending, but it was imperative that they came. To pay their respects, and because there were no other Paladins to come.

It was just the two sibling-like gems against the world.

The tears stopped coming as Keith and Lance were laid to rest, finally. She walked up to the coffins first.

In Lance’s, his bayonet. In Keith’s, a flower she had caused to grow, glowing green with a black gem. It was completely individual, like he had been.

And as she walked away from the graveyard, as the sun beat down on her, she spotted a pigeon.

She’d come full circle.

“Matt, I think I can breathe for a first time.”


End file.
